Candy forming method



"Deals, 1942' E. E. CAHOQN 2,304,494

CANDY FORMING METHOD Original Filed Feb. 3,1940 -2 Sheets-Shet 1 Dec. 8, 1942. E CAHOON 2,304,494

I CANDY FORMING METHbD Original Filed Feb. -3, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 mm v jdwfid 55210027" times inflicted fatal injuries.

Patented Dec. 8, 1942 PATENT OFFICE CANDY FORMING METHOD Edward E. Cahoon, Racine, Wis.

Original application February 3, 1940, Serial No. 317,150. Divided and this application Septemher 8, 1941, Serial No. 409,972

.2 Claims. (01. 10'754) Thisinvention relates to candy forming machines of the type illustrated in Patent No.

1,635,682 issued July 12, 1927, to Z. M. Marr, and which molds or forms candy suckers and simultaneously embeds handles in the suckers. 5 and is a division of the copending application of Edward E. Cahoon, Serial No. 317,150 filed February 3, 1940, and issued March 3, 1942, as Patent No. 2,274,664. i

Machines of this type form candy suckers on, 10 the ends of substantially rigid wooden sticks held so as to project into the mold cavities of one of the molding cylinders to be embedded in the candy as it flows into the mold.

The great majority of users of confections of this type are children who unthinkingly leave the sucker in their mouths during their various activities. Consequently, a child falling while holding a sucker in'his mouth unattended was exposed to serious? injury due to the rigidity of: the wooden handles which forced the confection into the palate or throat of the child and some- With a view toward overcoming these dangers, this invention contemplates providing lollipops or candy suckers with a bendable semi-rigid handle so as to render the use of confections of this type noninjurious to children.

One type of handle which has proved satisfactory with respect to safety is the semi-rigid twisted paper or Cellophane fhandle. A lollipop handle of this nature has suflicient rigidity to I eifectively support the confection but is readily collapsible when force is applied thereto. The safety feature of these twisted paper handies, however, has in the past prohibited their widespread use for the present candy forming machines were incapable of handling the same without objectionably bending them during embedding in the candy, either if forced endwise into the formed candy, or if held in the mold prior to forming the. candy therein. This resulted in the production of candy suckers whose handles projected therefrom at awide variety 45 of angles which obviously detracted from, the appearance of the sucker. r 1

This present invention, therefore, has as one of its objects the provision of a novel manner of producing candy suckers with semi-rigid or bendable handles whereby the objections above noted are entirely eliminated.

Another object of this invention resides in the provision of a method of making candy suckers or lollipops of the character described in which:

the discharge of candy is controlled to protect designs formed on one side thereof.

With the above and other objects in view which will appear as the description proceeds, this invention resides in the novel method and manner of making candy suckers and lollipops substantially as hereinafter described, and more particularly defined by the appended claims, it being understood that such changes in the precise embodiment of the hereindisclosed invention may be made as come within the scope of the claims. p

The accompanying drawings illustrate one complete example of the actual embodiment of the invention as practiced in accordance with the best mode so far devised for the practical application of the principles thereof, and in which: 4

Figure l is a cross sectional view through a "candy forming machine illustrating the improvements tion; v

Figure 2 is'a side elevational View of a portion of the machine illustrated in Figure 1 as viewed from the feed-in side thereof;

Figure 3is a fragmentary perspective view of a port-ion of the handle carrying molding cylinder illustrating one of the mold cavities thereof;

Figure 4 is an enlarged cross sectional view through a portion of one of the form rollers required therein to practice this invenshowing the forces applied by the candy to the stick;

Figure 5 is a sectional view taken through Figure 4 on the plane of the line 5-5;

Figure 6 is a detail view partly in section illustrating the manner in which suckers formed on the machine are removed from the mold cavities thereof;

Figures 7 and 8 are views illustrating candy suckers equipped with the non-rigid bendable handle of this invention, the former showing a sucker made with the old method and the latter showing a sucker made in accordance with this invention; and r Figure 9 is a view similar to Figure 3 illustrating a modified form of mold cavity.

Referring now particularly to the accompanying drawings, in whichlike numerals indicate like parts, the numerals 5 and 6 represent the upper and lower molding cylinders or forming 1 dies of the machine respectively. These cylinders or dies are carried by shafts 1 and 1 respectively, jour-' nalled in suitable bearings, (not shown) which rotatably mount the cylinders in spaced apart parallel relationship. Meshing gears 8 and 8' on the shafts l and I drivingly connect the cylinders for rotation at the same speed but in opposite directions when either of the shafts is connected to a power source.

The upper molding cylinder 5 is provided with a plurality of closely spaced molding cavities 9 arranged circumferentially on the peripheral surface of the cylinder. These cavities may be of any desired shape, but for illustration have been shown as rectangular in outline, with the bottoms of the cavities spaced inwardly from but concentric to the cylindrical surface of the cylinder so as to form a, flat bottom for the sucker. The lower cylinder 6 is provided with an equal number of similarly shaped molding cavities IE3, each of which registers with one of the molding cavities in the adjacent upper cylinder 5 during rotation of the cylinders in opposite directions.

The bottoms of the mold cavities l0, however, are preferably shaped so as to form a raised design on the molded sucker as shown.

The space between the cylinders at the area thereof in which the mold cavities are situate-d therefore constitutes a molding zone I l, in which candy to be molded is fed. The candy, indicated as at I2 is fed into the molding zone ll between the cylinders in the form of a rope over a feed board l3, and is guided between two adjustable, side walls l4 so as to enter the molding zone in line with the mold cavities. At this stage, the candy is in a hot, plastic state, with a consistency approximating that of putty.

In operation, the cylinders which are slightly spaced apart are rotated in the direction shown by the arrows in Figure l and candy is fed into the molding zone between the cylinders to be molded in the cooperating mold cavities thereof to the shape of the cavities. The ribs formed by the side walls of adjacent cavities cooperate to leave a narrow strip of candy connecting each of the molded suckers discharged from between the cylinders, so that the suckers are discharged in the form of an endless band.

As in the aforementioned patent, No. 1,635,682, the machine of this invention also provides for embedding the sucker handles in the candy by causing the plastic candy to flow around the ends of handles projecting into the mold cavities of the upper cylin r 5.

the cylinder 5 by means of a hopper l8 positioned near the top thereof. The hopper I8 is adapted to at all times hold a 'supply of handles longitudinally against the cylindrical surface of the cylinder in line with its grooved area so that handles are transferred from the hopper to the cylinder grooves it as the cylinder rotates.

, To insure the transfer of only one handle to a groove, the longitudinally extending wall l9 of the hopper which the grooves pass in leaving the hopper is provided with a stripper plate 29. The stripper plate 20 is adjustable by means of thumb screws 2! extending through slots 22 in the plate to be threadedly received in the adjacent wall [9. The plate is thus securely held with respect to the hopper wall l9 with its lower edge adjacent to the cylinder adjustable to closely overlie the surface thereof.

The hopper i8 is so positioned longitudinally of the cylinder 5 as to deposit handles in the grooves It with one end portion of the handles projecting into their respective mold cavities. As stated, the cylinder 5 receives handles near its upper surface and carries the same for substantially a half of a revolution downwardly into the molding zone where they are embedded in the candy formed in the molds.

To retain the handles in their proper position in the cylinder grooves l6 until they are carried into the molding zone, a guide finger 24 is provided to overlie that portion of the cylinder which receives the handles and carries the same downwardly into the molding zone. The guide finger 24 may be supported from the supply hopper 13 as shown or from any suitable support.

The structure thus defined is similar to the type of candy forming machine illustrated in the aforesaid Patent No. 1,635,682. This type of machine is suitable for use with rigid wooden sticks but when semi-rigid paper or Cellophane handles are to be embedded in the confection, the end portion of the handle extending into the mold cavity is subjected to lateral forces in the molding zone during forming of the candy which result in bending the embedded portions of the handle in an objectionable manner. The entire handle thus becomes out of alignment with the body of the sucker as illustrated in Figure 7. This results from the fact that the paper or Cellophane handles have a degree of inherent resiliency which tends to straighten out the free end of the handle to a straight line position with the embedded portion after the suckers are discharged from the cylinders.

In the present invention, however, means are provided to prevent the ends of the bendable candy handles from being deformed in their passage through the molding zone by the forces exerted thereon as the candy flows into the mold.

To this end, each of the mold cavities 9 is provided with an upstanding lug 26 in its bottom and preferably near the center of the bottom wall of the cavities. Each of the lugs is grooved as at It in such a manner that the lugs cooperate with the grooves iii in supporting the opposite ends of the candy handles ll. Thus it will be seen that the end of the handle projecting into the mold cavity is firmly supported above the bottom of its cavity against lateral forces during its passage through the molding zone and is thereby prevented from being bent as shown at 21 in Figure 7.

, During normal operation of the candy forming machine a force in ,a direction opposite to that in which candy is being fed into the working zone is exerted by the candy on the end portions of the handle extendinginto the mold cavities as shown in Figures 4 and 5, and for this reason the lugs 26 are extended as at 28' at one side of their grooves so as to positively prevent the end portion of the handle from being bent laterally in said direction.

Inasmuch as the handles are thus held against all tendency to be bent out of shape, the sucker thus formed has a perfectly straight handle which aligns with the body of the confectionas shown in Figure 8.

As is customary, stripper fingers 29 and 30 operating in circumferential grooves 3| and 32 on the upper and lower cylinders respectively, eifect the removal of the formed candy suckers from the molding cylinders.

If desired, a modified construction such as shown in Figure 9 may be employed to effectively prevent bending of the end portion of the handle to be embedded in the candy.

In this form of the invention the major length of the stick is supported in the same manner as previously described but the end portion of the stick projecting into the mold cavity 9 is supported at the opposite sides of the cavity in an extension 34 of the groove IS. The handles are thus held at each end and are secure against the lateral forces exerted on the same as the candy is pressed into the molds.

As hereinbefore stated, the candy suckers are formed in connected relationship with respect to each other, and are discharged from the molding cylinders in an endless band with the design lowermost. Inasmuch as the candy is still in a plastic state after molding, the conventional procedure is to transport the suckers on a conveyor to suitable drying and hardening means in the direction in which they-are discharged from the machine.

This is objectionable, however, for the suckers are discharged face down, in other words, with their design lowermost, and as the candy remains plastic until it is passed through the drying and hardening means, the design was invariably damaged in contacting the conveyor.

The present invention overcomes this objection to past practices by reversing the travel of the connected suckers after they leave the molding cylinders so that they rest on their fiat backs on the conveyor 34. To this end, an arcuate slide 35 of a length to support approximately four of the connected suckers at a time is positioned ahead of andslightly below the top of the lower molding cylinder to receive the endless band of connected suckers discharged from the machine. From the slide 35, the suckers travel by gravity in a downward direction and are directed onto the conveyor 34 by an inclined slide 36. The

slide 36 is positioned at such an angle that only the backs of the suckers contact the same in their passage thereover to the conveyor, and they are delivered face up to the conveyor.

Consequently, reversing the discharge of the suckers in this manner safeguards the design thereon, for it is seen that the only surface contacted by the design is that of the arcuate slide 35. This is not objectionable, however, as the full weight of the suckers is not taken by the slide 35 due to its downwardly inclined angle.

From the foregoing description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that this invention provides a method of embedding semirigid or bendable safety handles in candy suckers which entirely overcomes the objections heretofore encountered and enables utilizing the advantages of semi-rigid handles to the fullest extent.

What I claim as my invention is:

l. The hereindescribed method of forming molded candy suckers which comprises: subjecting candy in a plastic state to a continuous molding operation in which a raised design is formed on each sucker to form an endless band of connected suckers with the design on the suckers lowermost; and reversing the position of the connected suckers after said molding operation so that the design is uppermost on the suckers and protected against damage during subsequent treatment of the suckers.

2. The hereindescribed method of applying candy to the end of a semirigid bendable handle to form a lollipop which comprises: forcing a portion of candy in a plastic state into one side of a candy mold into which one end of the handle projects so that the candy travels progressively from said side of the mold around and past the end of the handle therein to the other side of the mold; pressing said portion of candy firmly into the mold about said end of the handle; and supporting the end of the handle in the mold against displacement in the direction of travel of candy across the mold and by force exerted thereon by the pressing action.

. EDWARD E. CAHOON. 

